Stranded wire ("fibrous" as you put it somewhat colorfully:-)) is advantageous for flexibility, but it has no greater DC current carrying capability than solid copper of the same wire gauge. The skin, or "surface" effect is generally only of interest at frequencies of 10's of KHz and above.

It's not true, as someone posted earlier, that the battery of the jumping vehicle is not important during a jump start. Your alternator can't begin to provide enough current to turn a starter. Most alternators are 60-100 amps, whereas most starters take upwards of 200 amps even with a warm engine on a good day. Add a cold engine and stiff oil to the mix, and the current draw requirement goes towards 500 amps, well past the capability of any automotive alternator. That's also why too small (or too long) jumper cables don't work well; they simply can't transport enough current.

Here are some numbers if anyone is interested --
4AWG cable loses 25mV/foot at 100 amps, so a 20 foot set of 4AWG cables (40 feet of wire length) at 500 amps would lose 5 volts, which is probably enough loss to keep the starter from working. Use 0AWG wire and cut the length to 10 feet (20 feet of wire), and your voltage drop goes to about 1.2 volts, which will leave enough to start the car. Of course, you have significant losses in the alligator connections as well, which only make the problem worse. That's why it's generally the most effective to run the jumping car at fast idle for 10 minutes or so to juice up the dead battery so it can help out through its much shorter cabling and hopefully much better connections.

 

RJR thanks for that info!


One of the PO's had a sound system and they installed it like a tweaker

 

well, the smaller battery plus crappy sound system install, could lead to problems down the road. I would clean that junk up.

 

There isnt any more of the sound system left, all I have is front speakes, the only thing that remains is the switch, fuse and power cord to the rear of runner

 

Do not underestimate corrosion no battery connections

Battery connectors on both vehicles look awful. Quite possible tat when u jumped with your truck, you weren't making good contact, and when you jumped with external jump starter, you then made good contact.

Gotta have bare metal to bare metal contact between post and connector. Bare metal is shiny, silvery color of lead post and connector or shiny copper of connector. Grey metal is oxidized metal. Buy a $6 batery terminal cleaner and take care of that.

Also see Charging system link no my sig for quick and practical health check of your charging system.

 

You can lead them to water but can`t make them drink!!

 

RJR, you are correct.. I didn't realize that the 'theory' says that for DC the current flow is 'through' the wire evenly and AC flow is "over the surface" interesting, and good point

If you're talking about when i said 'the size of the battery doens't matter', what I meant there was the physical size not the cranking amps.

Thanks for correcting my DC/AC issues now.. hopefully I'll learn something as useful at work today!

 

Sorry if I misread your post on battery size, Gevo. I agree that cranking amps is the important issue. And, in truth, with the dinky engines we use in these trucks, any car battery in good shape should crank it just fine, given good cabling and connections. It's not like we're trying to start a 7.0 liter Cummins Diesel.

 

I have a cleaner, Ill hit them with the water vinegar trick then the terminal cleaners.

Then ill be looking the the correct battery for at least the 4runner haha

 

Amen! LOL!

 

You want to make sure you have good electrical connections everywhere...not just the post itself. Those temporary connectors require more attention than a factory post connector. Use some fine sandpaper on the wire going to the temporary post connectors and on the eye connector going to the factory post connector. CRC makes a corrosion/terminal spray that works well for prevention. When I had a post style battery, at least once a year I'd clean the connection with the special wire brush post cleaning tool. One advantage of the side terminal battery is it doesn't have as much problems with corrosion. Another thing is that doesn't hurt is to use a battery that is a little more powerful than one that meets the minimum requirements, all they care about at the parts store is selling you what is listed for your vehicle even though there may be a slightly larger and more powerful battery that fits fine in your box at the same price. Since a battery becomes weaker over time, a more powerful battery can last longer.

 

Once I give the terminals and connections a good cleaning, would the metalic "oil" stuff that helps the connection on spark plugs work for the battery?

 

I haven't tried any of the stuff in the foil packets on battery terminals. I've had good results with the red spray, it is also easy to apply to the threads on a side terminal battery.

 

Cool Thanks, and THANKS to everyone else that has dealt with my lack on knowledge
and has helped me out haha

 

I think you are talking about di-electric grease.

It protects the connectors from corrosion.

 

Its like a silver metallic color, I got it at autozone for like a dollar when I changed my spark plugs and it came in a tiny pouch, I can get the name when I get home from work

 

One 50' piece of welding cable 1/0 donated to the cause because I no longer need to have enough cable to reach out 500' from the truck.

cut in half using cable cutter just for cable!!

crimp lugs on the end with the hole size to fit what ever battery clamps use get I use 800 amp copper.

I also have Quick connect pig tails on most all my batteries .

Then I cable tie every 2' or so .

roll them up cable tie them till I ever need to use them.

Not real hard to figure out.

I also make all my own battery cables.

I also run the most capacity battery I can get in case I need to borrow them to throw in the 7.3 Power stroke in the wee hours before batteries R`us opens.

 

Ok never mind I guess it was just some anti seize...

 

Correct, don't use anti-seize; that's for threads.

Use di-electric grease. It's silicone-based. You put it on electrical contact surfaces. When you push surfaces together grease is pushed aside, metal makes contact with metal, grease around interface will prevent corrosion. Permatex makes good one. Also good for conditioning old weather-stripping I heard- tried on one of my window glass trim. We' shall see.

 

I checked Advance Auto's battery listings for an 86 Toyota pickup, they do a very good job of listing a large number of different series that will fit. They list everything from a 425cca up to an 800cca battery. I'm sure there are others on the forum that have managed to install an even more powerful battery in the factory location. As for those temporary post connectors, I'd use replacement cables instead. It is difficult to keep a good electrical connection where the connector clamps on to the braided wire because of corrosion.